Speaker
Giorgi
Margvelashvili
Position
Institution
H.E. Giorgi Margvelashvili was elected as the President of Georgia on October 27, 2013. The Former Vice Premier and the Minister of Education and Science, Giorgi Margvelashvili is a strong democrat and a reformer. He is the initiator of the process of essential transformation of the politicized education system. In May, 2013 Giorgi Margvelashvili was named as the Presidency candidate by the coalition “Georgian Dream” and he confidently won the elections with 62,18 percent of votes.
Education
Giorgi Margvelashvili graduated from Tbilisi State University in 1992 and obtained his degree in Philosophical Sciences. Throughout the period from 1993 to 1994, he continued studying in Central European University (Czech Republic, Prague) and in the period from 1993 to 1996 – in the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. In 1998 he obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Philosophic Sciences in Tbilisi State University.
Career
Giorgi Margvelashvili was interested in alpinism and worked as a guide for mountaineers in the 1990-ies for different travel companies, including “Caucasus Travel”.
Throughout the period from 1996 to 1997, Giorgi Margvelashvili taught Philosophy and Cultural Studies in Tbilisi Free University. In the period from 1995 to 2000, he held the position of the Local Government Expert in Tbilisi office of National Democratic Institute (NDI – the American organization which is engaged in strengthening the democractic principles in the world). From 2000 to 2012, Giorgi Margvelashvili worked at different positions at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). In the periods from 2000 to 2006 and 2010 to 2012, he held a position of a Rector at GIPA while from 2006 to 2010,he led the Research Department.
Giorgi Margvelashvili was involved in politics before the Parliamentary elections of November 2003, when he was the member of the opposition party, led by the Chairman of the Parliament, Zurab Zhvania. Giorgi Margvelashvili openly criticized the government which was under the rule of Mikheil Saakashvili, and considered it to be corrupted and authoritarian. Preserving the political independence, Giorgi Margvelashvili was the adviser of Bidzina Ivanishvili during the 2012 Parliamentary election campaign of the coalition “Georgian Dream”.
After the coalition won the Parliamentary elections, Giorgi Margvelashvili was appointed as the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia. His initiatives include increased salaries for teachers and investment in renewing the schools’ infrastructure and equipment.
In February, 2013 Giorgi Margvelashvili was appointed as the first Vice Premier and he actively cooperated with the Prime Minister in this sector; but after he was named as the Presidential candidate on October, 2013, he resigned.
Private life
Giorgi Margvelashvili is 47 years old. He has a wife – Maka Chichua (artist and actress) and two children – Ana Margvelashvili (student at the Institute of Public Affairs of Georgia) and Teimuraz Margvelashvili.
In his free time Giorgi Margvelashvili enjoys walking, horse-riding and hosting his friend in his country house in Dusheti.